More #HeroQuest 2019 this week — after completing a bunch of Orcs, I turned my eyes to all of the undead creatures appearing in HeroQuest. And I still remember how I was very much in love with the undead models back when I first received the game: I had a huge thing for skeletons back then, for some reasons (I blame Masters of the Universe), and I still remember simply being blown away when I saw John Blanche’s “Skeleton Horde” illustration on the back cover of HeroQuest’s “Return of the Witch Lord” expansion quest book:
“Skeleton Horde” by John Blanche
Once again, I had already painted some test models back in 2014, and my testers also featured a proof of concept for each of the undead creatures appearing in the game:
Of those three, I liked the Zombie the best, so that’s where I started — I also feel the Zombie is one of the best monster sculpts to appear in the HeroQuest box: It’s such a deceptively simple model, but between the effective pose, the sinister looking weapon, and the surprising amount of detail, this guy is really one of my favourites. Maybe that’s the reason because one of the HeroQuest Zombies was the very first model I have ever tried to paint:
“AHHH! IT BURNNNNSSSS!” 
My first painting steps notwithstanding, I was still pretty happy with my 2014 proof-of-concept:
So I decided to stick to the original recipe fairly closely. Unfortunately enough, I was not quite able to match the greenish tinge of the skin, seeing how it was originally achieved by using an old GW Green Ink that has since dried up for good. I still did my best to make the models look suitably moldy, though, and here’s what I ended up with:
Funnily enough, I painted these while watching Christopher Odd’s playthrough of the Resident Evil Remake on YouTube, which seemed like a pretty good match
As you can see, I once again added some variation to their clothes, so as not to end up with six models that were completely alike. Oh, and I allowed myself one small kitbash, swapping in an axe blade from an old Warhammer Skeleton kit. The weapons have that certain HeroQuest clunkiness, so I think it works rather well:
So with the Zombies finished, I next turned my attention to the Skeletons.
For the 2014 test model, I used a very simple approach of brushing the bone colour directly onto the brown undercoat:
It seemed like a good idea at the time, and if nothing else, it made for a bit of contrast on the model. It also led to a somewhat dirty and dusty look, however, and I really wanted to look my Skeletons look much more bleached, and maybe a tad cleaner. So for the new models, while I still used drybrushing, I went for a lighter colour overall and basecoated the entire Skeleton in GW Rakarth Flesh before washing and drybrushing. And I think it worked pretty well:
Here’s a direct comparison between the old and new recipe, and I think the new approach works far better:
The rusty scythe was definitely a keeper, though, so I kept the look
What was really nice was how quickly I was able to bang out eight Skeletons (and I’ll even need another for to have everything I need to play the “Return of the Witch Lord” expansion). Here they are:
And finally, the mummies. Once again, there was a 2014 version…
…and while it worked well enough, I felt the models needed a little more contrast. So I threw in an extra drybrushing stage (and used a general recipe very close to that of the new Skeletons). Anyway, these guys were probably the quickest of the bunch to be finished, and I am pretty happy with them:
So all in all, this means another bunch of models for HeroQuest and a whopping twenty models to cross off my list. Take a look at my little undead army here:
Oh, and since those models were all painted back in February, I’ll consider them another contribution to Azazel’s “Neglected Models” challenge one again
Truth be told, there’s actually one more undead model that I haven’t shown to you yet — but that’s a subject for another time, as I would say the …gentleman in question very much deserves his own post…
Until then, I would of course love to hear what you think, so drop me a comment! And, as always, thanks for looking and stay tuned for more! 